Mass storage systems have appeared in which users can store massive amounts of data for a fee. Such mass storage systems facilitate the creation of various applications on the Internet that require such data storage. One drawback for large scale mass storage systems that are made available to multiple customers for a fee revolves around securing data and limiting access to such data to appropriate clients. Specifically, one customer that stores data may wish to provide access to select parts of the data to select clients. Also, such a customer would not want unauthorized clients to access such data, nor would the customer care to have access to the data of a third party. This is especially the case given that the data stored by a given individual may be critical data that cannot be exposed to unauthorized third parties.